'Barbie,' 'Oppenheimer' and the Oscars can't save this Delaware movie theater from closing

A solid summer at the box office with "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" plus this week's buzz about the Oscars wasn't enough to save a longtime movie theater in Dover.

The only AMC movie theater in Delaware is closing, one of a series of cinema shutdowns across the country by AMC and other companies.

At the Dover Mall, the AMC Classic Dover 14 theater is ending its run in several days, according to company spokesperson Cassie Nichols.

“I can confirm that AMC will cease operations at Dover 14 after close of business on Sunday, March 17, 2024,” Nichols wrote in an email March 11. “AMC routinely reviews the theatres in our circuit, as well as opportunities outside of our circuit, and makes decisions based on what will best strengthen the company going forward. We thank our Dover 14 guests for their patronage and have appreciated the support from the community throughout the years of operation.”

She did not respond to a question about how many employees work at the Dover location.

A Dover Mall spokesperson referred questions to AMC.

The mall had a theater since it opened in the early 1980s, but the original entrance was near Boscov's. When the theater was expanded from six screens to 14, the entrance was moved to the food court. In 2016, AMC bought Carmike Cinemas, which operated the movies at the mall. The Dover Mall theater changed its signs and webpage to reflect AMC ownership in 2017.

It's not the first cinema to close in Dover. Some other examples include Movies 6 in the Rodney Village shopping center, the Capitol Theater which is now the Schwartz Center for the Arts, the Blue Hen Mall Cinema and Towne Point, which is now a group of shops south of Big Lots.

As for community reaction on Facebook, Christina Latchum received nearly 200 comments as of March 11 to her post about the theater closing.

“This is sad for Dover and devastating for the Dover Mall,” Latchum wrote.

She wished the theater could have been renovated.

“Yes, the theater was in bad shape and needed to be updated but not permanently closed,” Latchum wrote.

Also on Facebook, Jocelyn Rome wrote: “Wow, that's a shame. I think if they update it, it would be a hit. I hate having to drive to Milford or Middletown but the movie theaters are so much better.”

Problems facing movie theater companies

That competition from Milford and Middletown was one challenge the Dover Mall theater faced in recent years with the opening of Westown Movies in Middletown in 2013 and Milford Movies 9 at the end of 2020.

But the entire theater industry has been rocked by fundamental changes in the business, first from COVID-19 shutdowns in early 2020, then the rise of streaming services as a place more people are watching first-run movies, then strikes last year by the Writers Guild of America and the actors union SAG-AFTRA, which slowed movie production in Hollywood.

More:Changes at Dover Mall include new tenant at former Sears, science fun for kids and burgers

Along with Dover, AMC closed theaters in multiple states in 2023 including Bluefield, West Virginia; Ashtabula, Ohio; Wilmington, North Carolina; Des Moines, Iowa and one of two theaters in Knoxville, Tennessee. An AMC cinema in Toms River, New Jersey closed in 2022.

In a story on The Street.com from Oct. 28, 2023, Daniel Kline wrote that AMC is “a struggling movie theater company that relies on selling more stock to keep the lights on.”

AMC closed the second quarter of 2023 with $643.4 million in available liquidity that includes $208.1 million of undrawn capacity under the company’s revolving credit facility, Kline said. That number grew by $350 million in September when the company sold more stock. 

However, the company lost more than $700 million in the 12 months before October 2023, according to InvestorPlace contributor Ian Bezek.

Bezek included AMC in his story called “3 stocks to sell before they become obsolete in 2024” on InvestorPlace.

“There is a reason AMC has engaged in financial maneuvering to issue more stock and raise capital; the business simply isn’t making money," Bezek wrote. "Indeed, analysts expect the company to lose money again in both 2024 and 2025. All the meme stock energy in the world can’t change the fact that movie theaters appear to be a declining industry, and AMC’s balance sheet is in tatters,” Bezek wrote.

What are the positive signs for an AMC recovery?

On its website, AMC lists 160 cities where the company's theaters are open.

In September 2023, business network CNBC reported that movie theaters “have experienced solid box-office returns this year. The summer season saw a 19% year-over-year increase, due in large part to the success of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer.’"

AMC has benefitted from those hit movies and has increased its revenue per ticket sold.

“We've had to adjust our strategy because the movie theater industry has come back slowly, and so our strategy has become survive, then thrive," said company CEO Adam Aron. "We have had to take the steps to make sure this company survives. And not all companies in our industry can say that.”

In AMC’s quarterly earnings report Feb. 29, Aron said 2023 “marked another year of strong operational and financial gains for AMC Entertainment, affirming the success of our strategic recovery efforts, as the industry continues to rebound from the lingering effects of the pandemic.”

Attendance at AMC theaters last year was nearly 240 million, up 19% over the prior year, marking the company's highest annual attendance after the pandemic.

“When you couple our 2023 attendance growth with our all-time record-setting admissions revenue and our all-time, record-setting food and beverage revenues per patron, AMC's annual revenues grew by 23%, exceeding $4.8 billion in 2023,” Aron said.

In addition to studio movies, he said the company is a trailblazer in the industry with “our highly successful distribution of two concert movies, 'Taylor Swift, The Eras Tour' and 'Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.'”

Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate, development and business stories. Reach him at rmace@gannett.com.